Hey Soul Sisters
by Anya Somers
Summary: Two sisters seek out the help of the Winchester Brothers to rid their car of its "problem".
1. Chapter 1

It was a humid August day. The skies had opened up already, the sudden down pour trying to ease the pressure in the atmosphere. It hadn't helped much. By the look of the clouds that were diverging in the sky, Stella thought another torrent was going erupt any minute. She coerced her sister to duck into the coffee shop for shelter. Roxi ordered the white chocolate caramel swirled latte with extra white chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Stella shook her head as she ordered the lemon zested, non-sweetened organic iced tea. Stella sometimes wondered how her sister maintained that barely 100 pound frame, but then again, she was still only 19, and ran every morning at the ass-crack of dawn. Stella looked at her phone, distractedly. Although the gym wasn't her favorite place to be, Stella still did her time there, and hiked on the weekends. She could pull off a bikini with the best of them; she just chose to show off her body in different, more subtle ways.

As her sister added just a "little more" sugar to her coffee creation at the fixings bar, Stella stealthily checked out the couple of college hotties at the corner table. They had noticed her and Roxi, and were nudging each other towards the sisters. Roxi had a tight stripped tank top on that stopped just above her navel, showing off her flat stomach, ample bosom (that was only slightly accentuated with her fancy bra) and silver spangled belly ring, and short short jean shorts. Again, Stella sighed. Stella had on a pair of khaki shorts, still short enough to show off her leanly muscled legs, and a white athletic tank. But she topped it all by tossing on a blue and tan plaid patterned shirt, tied at the waist. The blue brought out her eyes. She looked good, cute. She knew that. And so did Roxi. They were quite the pair. However, the fact that they were sisters might be lost on any bystander. Roxi had long black hair that fell past her shoulders and onto her back in luxurious curls, and large wide set brown eyes, and a Mediterranean olive complexion, directly from their Italian ancestry. Stella, however – had sun streaked blonde hair, pulled up to a make-shift bun, a loop of side bangs falling softly at the side of her face, only highlighting and framing her sparkling blue green eyes, and angled cheekbones. Her otherwise pale complexion ruddied by time in the sun. Her sister said something crude; Stella flashed her disarmingly brilliant smile, laughing from deep in her gut, tossing her head back carelessly emotive. The college boys exchanged surprised and somewhat unsettled glances. These girls were a force all unto their own, they weren't sure if they were up to the challenge.

Stella nodded in their direction, "Boys", and sat herself diagonally across the café from them. Far enough to not be over heard, but within visual distance. Roxi giggled. Stella rolled her eyes at her younger sibling's naïveté. Roxi looked like the wild child, but the girl had no game what so ever. But still, she never lacked for the boys' attention. Stella, however, worked a little harder, using her charm and finesse and in the end …. Ah, who was she kidding, Stella laughed at herself. She had no game either. Any luck she had with the male species was a combination of luck, timing and a flash of sexual flirt genius that hit her sporadically and so spontaneously that at times she had no idea where it came from. "If only I could harness that power" she chuckled at herself.

The college boys continued to watch them from across the room, and Roxi stirred her coffee. "Do you think they will ….?"

Stella ignored her and looked at her phone again. Trying to appear cool and detached. Roxi smiled. It was a tactic her sister used a lot. It was borderline compulsive. And it very rarely worked.

The door swung open, and a 7 foot monster walked through the door. 7 foot might be an exaggeration, but he was huge. Of course, Stella and Roxi were just barely 5 feet tall themselves, so that wasn't very hard to beat. But this man's head appeared to nearly touch the door frame, and his shoulders were just as wide, narrowing to a thin tight waist, and legs that were probably the length of Roxi's body. "Holy crap" Stella muttered. He had longish brown hair, with highlights sparkled through it that only God could create, a square jaw line and dimpled cheeks. Roxi sipped her coffee as the behemoth stepped into the café in one long stride, looking past him to the other male model who sauntered behind him, his legs bowed out slightly at the knees, and a fuck the world stare on his face. His wide oval eyes were such an intense green that it stunned both the girls, even from their seats. Roxi swallowed a bit more coffee than she intended, coughed and choked, her eyes tearing up immediately.

"You alright?" The first one questioned, grabbing a napkin and handing it to her politely.

Roxi stammered, embarrassed, "yeah, yeah, swallowed wrong…." Her voice was cracking from the liquid in her windpipe.

"I hate when that happens." The second man added, cocking his head slightly sideways as he acknowledged the sisters.

They turned away from Stella and Roxi, as if to continue on their own course of business, standing in line at the café's counter. "Any idea what we are looking for, Sam?"

'Sam' didn't answer, he just ordered an iced organic green tea, "What do you want Dean?"

Dean scoffed – "Nothing from this foo-foo place. I can go for a nice juicy burger …. Or….." he looked at the glass display cabinet with large cookies, muffins, pastries and cake-pops. "Ya got any pie?" No pie. He swore under his breath and shook his head with disgust.

"That's Sam and Dean." Roxi hissed. Stella said nothing, still staring after the men; Roxi kicked her sister under the table just in case she wasn't listening, "The Winchesters."

"I know." Stella finally responded.

Roxi looked at the napkin Sam had handed her. The realization slowly creeping over her like the caffeine buzz from her sugar laden drink. The Winchester Brothers. This was all too real now, "Stella, I can't do this…."

Stella leered at her sister, suddenly, "and what are we going to do about the car? And Mackenzie? Mackenzie just disappeared. What are we going to tell her parents?"

"I don't know, but this is crazy….." Roxi stammered, "And they are cute. Aunt Jayna never said they were cute."

"Yes, actually she did."

"Not _that_ cute. That's not cute … that's ….." Roxi's words were cut off by the college boys approaching their table. She smiled, and suddenly the term 'Winchester brothers' was wiped from her brain. They said something. But Roxi's smile was plastered to her face and nodding and blushing at the same time.

Stella raised her hand to the co-eds, "I'm sorry boys, but ….. We can't play with you right now." Her voice was so cool and dominant. Roxi was just a little envious of her sister's confidence at times, even if it was an act. Stella was standing up and leaving the boys in her wake before Roxi had the time to react. She shrugged, and offered a simple, "sorry…." as she followed her sister to the fixings bar, where Sam Winchester was grabbing a straw, and Dean was complaining about no pie.

Stella swallowed a gulp of air and dared to ask, "Are you Sam and Dean?" The brothers exchanged glances before answering, "Winchester. Sam and Dean Winchester?"

"Why is it always SAM and Dean? Why isn't it DEAN and Sam?" Dean muttered chewing on a coffee stirrer. Roxi snorted back a giggle. Dean smiled directly at her, his eyes glittering hazel. He enjoyed the slight gasp in her throat as she shyly looked at the cup in her hand, and the laces of her shoes.

Sam examined the older sister. "Stella?"

Stella nodded, "This is my sister, Roxi."

"You look a little different than the photo your aunt sent us." Dean's eyes narrowed as he said this and surveyed the siblings, not sure what to make of the pretty girls before him.

"We haven't seen our Aunt Jayna in quite some time." Stella offered. Aunt Jayna had been on the road for the last few years, ever since the Angels fell. Demons and Angels inhabiting the earth. Confusing the regular terrestrial people. It was a busy time for psychics. Especially one as talented as Jayna Somers. The last picture she had of them was probably at least 5 or 6 years old. A lot changes in that amount of time.

"Right! What was I, 13 in the picture? Braces? In a catholic school girl uniform?" Roxi laughed, forgetting her shyness for a moment.

"And not one of the sexy ones." Dean's eyes widened expressively, "no offense."

"None taken." Roxi smiled. That was easy, she thought. I just smiled at Dean Winchester.

Sam motioned to a table the corner, and they sat together. The brothers across from each other. Roxi and Stella looked at each other, and the chairs next to the Winchester brothers, hesitating.

"We don't bite. Sit down." Dean commanded, kicking the chair out in Roxi's direction. Dutifully, they sat. Stella next to Sam, Roxi next to Dean. Although, both girls pulled their chairs slightly further from the men, and closer to each other, it was done almost subconsciously. Aunt Jayna trusted these Winchester Brothers. But to the girls they were still almost 30-ish MEN.

"Jayna said you girls have a little problem with a poltergeist?" Sam got into it right away. Roxi blinked a few times at the casualness and forwardness of it. Stella took it in stride.

"That's what she said she thought it might be." Stella then spewed into the story of the battered old Ford that her father had given her for her high school graduation. It was a great first car. Old and beat up, but ran like a champ. ("the old cars always do" Dean muttered). It didn't matter if she nicked it with a shopping carriage, or ran over a curb; it handled it all like a tank. Everything was fine until she left for college. A nice small college the next state over. She had brought the car with her, but freshman weren't allowed to have cars on campus, so she stored it at a local used car dealership for a small rental/storage fee, but had access to it whenever she wanted. Her father knew the owner from way back when.

"It started acting wonky when I picked it up for summer break. I brought it to a mechanic, had it looked at, tuned up, all that stuff." Stella paused.

Roxi interrupted, "he ran a full diagnostic on it. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact the mechanic offered to buy it from her."

Dean inquired, "What is it?"

Stella looked at him not quite sure what he was asking; Roxi chimed in, "1985 Chevy Caprice"

"2 doors or four?" Dean asked as if grilling the young girl.

Roxi leaned in, accepting the elder Winchester's challenge, "4 door, hard top. Metallic blue. Manuel shift."

Impressed, "Classic." Dean smiled with a nod. Sam leered at him for a moment, then exchanged shrugs with Stella.

"Anyway, we were getting ready to take a trip to see Aunt Jayna, but when I started telling her what the car was doing she said to leave it at the mechanics for now, and she would try to contact some hunter friends of hers."

"And then Mackenzie disappeared ….." Roxi added, as if her sister had forgotten.

"She borrowed the car, disappeared, but the car reappeared…" Dean filled in, knowing the story from the phone call from Jayna.

Roxi stared at Dean as if he wasn't quite getting the depth of the situation, "She took it, disappeared for a night, the next morning, there was the car. Right in front of our house. Empty."

"And that's where you guys came in." Stella was pretty sure that covered it.

"Jayna probably would have handled it herself, but she's been a little busy." Sam reached into his bag, and pulled out his laptop. He glances quickly around, and noticed the free Wi-Fi symbol on the door, and booted up.

Stella and Roxi nodded. They didn't know exactly what their Aunt Jayna did. She read tea-leaves, or tarot cards, or palms or something. Their dad anyways said it was a lot of 'hokum flim-flam", devised to steal money from the naïve and simple-minded. But they had seen her at work themselves, when they spent the summer with her at her house in Florida. She not only had a sixth sense for the smallest inconsequential things, i.e. "don't buy that, its going on clearance next week", and in the middle or torrential rain, "let's go to the beach at noon, the waves will be killer." And the sun came out from exactly 12-1:30. Best surfing day ever. Or when she called her best friend from high school and insisted that she take her mother to the hospital for a CTscan immediately, and they found a hidden tumor. Or don't get on THAT plane. Etc.

"She told us to circle it with salt, put some crazy things in bowls the corners and say some sort of incantation. But it did nothing."

"Angelica root, van van oil and crossroad dirt?" he didn't look up as he asked, Stella had thought Sam wasn't listening, but he heard every word as he plucked at the keyboard of the laptop.

"Yeah. That's it." She agreed.

"A simple purification ritual?" Dean posed to his brother.

"Simple? Yeah, cuz' we have Angelica root and van van oil just hanging around the house…" Roxi sniped. The boys ignored her. They couldn't relate, they had items like that in the trunk of the Impala. And more.

"Usually just for houses, put a small bowl in the four corners - North , South, East, West, on every floor." Sam clarified

Dean scowled. "Sometimes it just pisses the poltergeist off."

"Great." Stella sighed sarcastically, taking a sip of her iced tea. The sight made Sam thirsty. He raised his plastic cup in a salute, and joined her in the partaking of beverage.

"Well." Roxi was getting tired of all this chatting, "She said you guys were the best. So what now?"

Stella looked around the café. Business buzzed around them as normal. The college boys had left. There was a couple canoodling in the corner. A line of two or three people deep at the counter. Some sort of acoustic folksy music sang out of the café's speakers. She looked from Sam Winchester, who was plugging along on his laptop, to Dean Winchester who was staring at her sister, trying to figure her out, "How old are you?" He had asked, and grimaced as if he was shot when she said 19.

Stella frowned. Something was missing. Not something. Someone.

"Where's the Angel?"


	2. Chapter 2

"All this chatter and internet 'research' (he did finger quotes in the air as he said "research"), isn't really going to help us much. We need to see the car. And we need to visit the place it was stored." Dean announced, leaning back in his chair, teetering it on two legs.

"Ok – then, let's go."

"Should we call your parents or something?" Sam wondered out loud trying to sound as diplomatic as he could.

"I'm 20 years old, Sam. I think I can go places without my parents' permission." Stella threw back in his face, adding with it a well practiced sneer. Stella was used to people judging her as a small pretty girl, and not the fierce independent spirit that she prided herself in being, and it pissed her off.

"Sorry – no offense – you said you were a freshman … and…" Sam held up his hands defensively.

Stella tried to contain her snarkiness, took a deep breath, and answered in a cool detached voice, "I took a little time off between high school and college."

Roxi remained quiet. Their parents probably would like a little phone call just to let them know what was up, before they took off with some strange dudes that Aunt Jayna knew. But she wasn't going to do it.

"Alright then, Thelma and Louise, Let's go then." Dean's reference to the old 90's chick flick was lost on the younger Roxi, but Stella smiled, wondering which one she was, Thelma or Louise.

The girls sat in the back seat of the 1967 Impala. Aunt Jayna had described the car as classically beautiful but bad-ass. And she was right. Neither girl had been in a "classic" car, and were a little star struck by its cool factor. But then again, disappointed by its lack of features they were used to. "It's freakin' hot back here; doesn't this boat have any AC?"

Dean tried not to look offended, "Nope". He blared some old school AC/DC to drown out any other complaints about his baby. Roxi faced the side window, toying with the window levers and the side ashtray – "Hey there's a little toy army man in here…" she discovered.

Sam and Dean in unison, ordered, "DON'T TOUCH IT." Roxi and Stella exchanged the usual kind of looks sisters exchange when one of them is yelled at. Roxi closed the ashtray wordlessly.

There was a strange shift in the air in the Impala; it was a mix of a cool breeze and a warm sensation throughout her body at the same time. A whooshing fluttering sound filled her ears. Just as she was about to ask her sister if she heard it too – but ….

"Hello Dean, Sam." The voice was harsh and groveled.

The girls jumped closer to the sides of the car, as the Angel had appeared between them. Roxi let out a series of colorful words that wasn't completely in her control. Stella tried to shake off the initial shock, and whispered his name, "Castiel."

Slowly, the angel turned his face to the sisters, acknowledging them each individually, "Roxi. Stella."

"How do you know our names…?" Roxi started to ask, but was cut off by her sister's hiss, "He's an Angel of the Lord, you idiot."

When Cas faced Stella she felt the coolness of his blue eyes wash over her, "That is correct, Stella. Thank you. Although, your sister is not an idiot."

From the rearview mirror, they could see Dean rolling his eyes.

"You smell so sweet. Like honey." The words fell out of Stella's mouth before she even realized it.

"I like bees." Cas explained, smiling suddenly broadly, proudly.

"Not the bees, again, Cas!" Dean scolded. Cas squinted at the driver for a moment, cocking his head to the side, considering the older Winchester. Stella knew her eyes were like saucers, she couldn't control it. She had heard stories about the Angel Castiel that hung out with the Winchester Brothers sometimes, but she felt like she was faced with a fairy tale figure. Like a fairy godmother, or the Great and Powerful Oz. Slowly, cautiously, as if trying not to be detected, she poked the angel's shoulder with her finger. Totally solid. Just like any other human body. A hard tense muscle and bone shoulder. She wasn't sure if she was disappointed or more awestruck.

Cas's squint turned in her direction. "I assure you I am real, Stella DeLuci." Stella tried to soften her smile, but found it was plastered on her face. Her hand fell from his shoulder to stealthily smoothing the fabric of his tan trench coat that circled around him, pooling at her thighs.

"Aren't you hot in that coat?" Roxi asked bluntly.

"My body temperature is not affected by the atmospheric changes as much as yours are." Cas offered as an explanation.

Words from under Stella's breath were uttered, "Oh you're hot alright." Cas's squint returned to her. She feigned complete innocence, pretending she hadn't said a word, or heard the conversation, "What?"

Cas pursed his lips, as Sam chuckled in the front seat. "We've dealt with poltergeists before. Even a possessed car."

Dean glanced into the rear view mirror again at the girls, "Do either of you have an organ that is not yours? Even, maybe had a blood transfusion?"

Roxi blanched, "What?!" Dean clarified, "Like a transplanted kidney, or something?"

"Right, right – that time that girl, Rose's was all pissed off, and started haunting the people who had her organs, and then took over the car, and killed that last girl." Sam added.

"No." Stella and Roxi said together.

"This one time, Sam was a car." Dean laughed out loud, "That was awesome."

"That was NOT awesome." Sam countered defiantly.

Dean continued to chuckle, "yep, he was the Impala…."

Roxi thought about it for a minute, and concluded, "So you were inside of him?"

Cas looked from the young girl to Dean. "You were inside your brother, Dean?"

"No. No….." Dean started to back peddle.

"That was the Trickster's handwork." Sam explained, "It didn't last very long. And I'd rather not talk about it. It was NOT fun."

Cas looked down solemnly. "My brother, Gabriel." Sam and Dean nodded together, realizing the Angel was reminiscing about his dead brother. "He was killed by Lucifer, trying to defend humanity." He informed the young girls, "but he came to me in a vision once. So I hope that he, perhaps, survived."

"If anyone can fake his death like a champ, it's Gabriel." Dean reassured his angel friend. Cas allowed himself to exchange a smile with the Winchester boy's reflection in the rear view mirror.

The rest of the ride to the auto lot was in silence, except for the blaring of Dean's 80's hair band cassettes.


	3. Chapter 3

"So this is Christine." Dean announced in his usual snarky way. He circled the metallic blue Chevy tentatively, glancing under the wheel wells, into the back seat. It was clean.

"You are referencing the novel about the demonically possessed car." Castiel nodded.

Dean glanced aside to him, he was a little more fun now that he got his pop cultural references, but he had to admit sometimes it was fun to tease him about it, "Actually, I was thinking more about the movie, but yeah."

"Well, she hasn't killed anyone." Stella felt the need to defend her car.

"She?" Sam teased Stella's anthropomorphism of the car. Stella shrugged.

Roxi rolled her shoulders as if freeing herself from something creepy, "That we know of, Mackenzie disappeared right after borrowing Her."

Castiel circled around the vehicle. "I do not sense demonic possession."

Dean chuckled, "You sure about that, Angel Boy?" He flicked his demon black eyes at the angel almost flirtatiously.

"What the fuck was that?!" Stella yelped. She was facing the older Winchester brother when his hypnotically gorgeous green eyes suddenly turned solid black in, quite literally, a blink. Not just the iris, either, the white sclera too. All midnight black.

Roxi screamed too, but her scream was not exactly the same. "Oh my God. Do that again! Do it again."

Dean raised his eyebrows like a proud little boy with a new trick, and prepared to show the younger DeLuci his demon eyes again.

"No, Dean. No." Sam's tone was definitely one used for scolding a child, or a bad puppy.

Stella stepped closer to Castiel, the Angel of the Lord, she thought that would be the safest distance, and repeated, fear choking her voice in her throat, "What. The. Fuck. Was. That?"

"Um… Dean has …. A medical condition." Sam tried to excuse away.

"Being a demon is not a medical condition listed in the AMA diagnosis guidelines…" Cas interrupted.

"Demon? He's a fucking DEMON?" Stella could not control the volume level of her voice.

Cas squinted at Stella, his eyes inquisitive, "You have a vocabulary similar to Dean's. And Meg's. She was a demon too. Perhaps …."

"I am not a fucking Demon." Stella announced, exasperated.

"Well, that would explain the car problem." Dean shrugged with a cheeky smile. Roxi was still creeping up to him, somewhat invading his personal space, staring into his eyes. He smirked deviously. Winked at the girl, flicking his eyes black once more just for kicks, turning them back before the other one could freak out again.

Roxi snorted loudly, slapped her hands together in outright glee. "That is so cool. You're a demon?"

"That is NOT cool. He's a demon! Dean Winchester, the great hunter, is a Demon?" Stella did not like this new revelation. Not in the least.

Sam raised his hands in deference, "Stella….its just a temporary condition. We are working on …."

"Speak for yourself, brother. Sometimes being a Demon comes in handy." Dean sauntered over to the frightened DeLuci girl. Stella steeled herself as he neared. "Comes with a little extra fire power." Stella shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her face more determined as Dean stared her down, "Sometimes, you need to know your enemy. See things from their side."

Stella cleared her throat, "So..." she tried to steady her voice, "you're a demon, then." She really wanted to be cool about this.

"I am." His eyes bore into her, his lashes curling up to his eyebrows as he batted his gorgeous green eyes at her, helping her forget that moments ago those eyes were blacker than night.

There was a buzz and a beeping going on behind them, catching Dean's attention, "Anything on the EMF?"

Sam sighed, "Nothing. No activity what-so-ever." He tucked his long hair behind his ears, his forehead creasing in concentration, "What are we dealing with here Dean?"

"Cas, there's a diner across the street. Take the girls there for a burger or something." Dean instructed. Cas faltered, "Please Cas, my brother and I need to check some things out."

"You're just going to ship us off with the Angel, while you do your little hunter thing?" Roxi spoke up, "That's not right. It's our car; we should know what is going on, and how to handle it."

Dean admired her spunk, "Truth is, hot stuff, we have no idea. But we are going to figure it out. But we've been on the road all day, and all you've eaten is that coffee drink at the café, and I, myself, am starving. Sam and I are going to talk to the owner of this chop shop, first, then we will meet you there. Order me a burger. Rare." He pointed at Cas, "and make sure they have pie this time."

Giving Dean a look that reminded Roxi of the way she might look at her own friends when they were bossing her around, a mixture of spite and resolution, Cas muttered, "I have no control over their pie supply."

* * *

"I ran a full report on the history of the car, 2 owners before Stella & Roxi's father. The original owner traded it in to a dealer for a mini van. Sat on the lot for under a year, not a big demand for a used Chevy Caprice, I guess. Sold to an older couple, who gave it to their teenage son, Earle. Son had it for years; right up until Frank DeLuci bought it from him." They stopped outside the manager's office of the auto dealer, Sam continued, "Apparently, Earle fell onto hard times, real sad case. Anyway, did some handyman work for the DeLucis; Daddy DeLuci fell bad for him, knew Earle needed the money and bought the car from him."

The beauty of the car was not missed on Dean, "The car is in spectacular shape. It was cared for like a favorite child. If Earle fell onto hard times, he certainly didn't skimp on maintenance or upkeep."

Giving Dean a well used semi-sarcastic smile, Sam quipped, "Well, you know how some people are with their cars."

Dean ignored his brother's comment, and took a second glance around the auto dealer. It was deserted. There wasn't one harassing salesperson, no overly friendly but sexy as hell hostess. No sounds of mechanics tinkering around in the repair bays. "Sam. This is a pretty pathetic excuse of a car dealer, isn't it?" There were a total of 10 cars on the lot itself. Each one in worse shape than the other. The price tag on each vehicle was barely legible and in a price range that might be over a decade old.

"Like you said, I just assumed it was a chop shop of some sort." Sam shrugged, rapping on the office door, "Maybe it's a cover for something." The door creaked open under the force.

"That's not a good sign." Dean said almost nonchalantly. But the Demon in him didn't smell the rancid odor that permeated from the doorway that assaulted Sam. Sam covered his mouth with the collar of his shirt. "Oh."

Sam swore at his brother and his Demon soul. "Damn it Dean." Was the gentler of the phrases. Brandishing their weapons, they opened the door cautiously.

"Well, we found Earle." Dean announced, while searching the decomposing body's pockets, "I'm guessing he's been dead, a week, maybe more. No clear cause of death. No gunshot, no stab wound, no signs of asphyxiation."

Sam stayed in the doorway, away from the stench of rotting flesh, "Maybe poison."

Dean shook his head, "I don't think so, Sammy." Pulling his hand out of the dead man's pocket, he revealed a small fabric pouch.

"Is that a hex bag?"

"No getting by you Sherlock!" Dean smiled mischievously, tossing it to his brother.

"A Hex bag." Sam shook his head, setting the bag into a blue blaze with a flick of his lighter.

* * *

"So… do you have wings?" Something in Stella's voice sounded different.

Sam heard it first, "Cas? What's going on?"

"The girls got bored waiting for you." He faced Dean, ever so loyal, "I had them wrap your burger and pie."

"I put it in the trunk." Roxi said louder than she meant to.

"The TRUNK?" Dean scolded. "Damn it, Roxi."

She giggled, "What's the matter Demon Boy?" The Impala's trunk was sealed with a devil's trap. Dean couldn't touch anything in it, at least not while it was actually IN the trunk.

"Cas, why'd you let her do that?"

Cas shrugged and repeated, "the girls got bored."

Sam leaned towards Stella and sniffed, "You've been drinking." Stella's mouth creased into a brilliant stunning but drunken smile. "You are not of age. Damn it Cas, they are not of age."

"I did not give them the alcohol." Cas explained.

"You are freakin' brilliant, Cas." Dean muttered.

"It's not his fault." Stella slurred, "We were bored."

Dean spied his flask fallen behind the Impala's wheel, empty, "Yeah, he said that."

"We started exploring the Impala. Looked through the trunk and stuff. Found your stash." Roxi rolled onto the balls of her feet, fairly proud of herself. She had a bottle of Jack Daniels hidden, unsuccessfully, behind her back. Could have been much worse, there was an arsenal big enough to kill an army of monsters in that trunk. They were lucky the girls only experimented with the booze.

"So …" Stella was ignoring the all-too parental sounding Winchester boys, "You have wings right? Can I see them? Are they soft and fluffy? Or are they fierce, like a dragon's? I bet they are fluffy, and cozy. Like being wrapped in a soft down cloud."

Cas cocked his head and pondered the young woman's words, "well, uh…"

"Enough! They are not like a dragon's." Dean snapped.

"Oh?" Roxi interrupted, "You've seen them, then, Dean? Are they soft and fluffy? Is it like being wrapped in a soft cloud?"

Dean leered at Roxi, rolling his eyes, "First my dinner, now this." Sam stifled his own snicker. "You shut up."

* * *

It was beyond midnight when the Winchester Brothers finally found the hex bag buried in the trunk of the Caprice. The DeLuci girls were fast asleep in the back seat of the Impala. Castiel was sitting cross-legged on the ground nearby, keeping a watchful eye on them.

Dean licked the burger juice from his fingers and was about to start on the pie, "Ok. So now we know what we are dealing with. Cursed Hex Bags. But we still don't know who."

"And there still is that missing girl."


	4. Chapter 4

Falling asleep in the Impala wasn't exactly part of the plan. The girls had deflected parental concern by telling their parents that they were visiting friends of Stella's at college. It covered the trip to the auto lot just outside campus, and gave them a few days to poke about. The Winchester Boys rented the usual no-star motel rooms for themselves and the girls; although they spent most of the night asleep in the back of the Impala, their room was mostly for showering and "that girlie stuff" as Dean called it. As Sam and Dean caught some Zs, the girls struggled with being hung-over and hungry.

"Can't that angel do anything for my headache?" Roxi complained, swallowing a handful of aspirin.

Castiel sat at his post at the desk in their room. He was told to 'keep an eye on them' distinctly from Dean, with his determined finger pointing gesture that meant that he was serious. "You are probably dehydrated. Alcohol …."

Holding her hand up, interrupting the angel's diatribe on the consequences of too much Hunter's Whiskey, "I got it Clarence." The corner of Cas's mouth quivered into a slight smile. The nickname Clarence reminded him of many things.

Stella finished applying her eyeliner, and gave herself a once over in the mirror. Originally, they weren't sure how long the trip was going to take, but still she was glad she thought ahead and made them pack a small bag. "What do you think Cas?" She held her hands up in the air, and did a small spin for the angel.

Cas considered the young girl for a moment. Her cream sleeveless shirt was made out of breathable gauzy cotton. Sensible for the August heat. It also complimented her skin tone. Her hair came to the first few opal buttons, which she had left slightly open. It was a warm day; perhaps she should have her hair up. Stella could see the angel's eyes change as these thoughts buzzed through his head. Her shorts were denim, and hugged her bottom and thighs, but with enough room so that walking or running would not be a problem. Her tan canvas shoes were thin, and "Can you run in those shoes? I don't know if…."

"She wants to know if she looks good." Roxi snapped.

Cas narrowed his eyes at the younger sister, reflecting on this comment, and then smiled broadly at Stella, "Of course, you look wonderful." Stella beamed. She didn't care if he had to be goaded into the compliment, "Thank you Cas."

Roxi took one last look in the mirror herself. Her black camisole top fell loosely at her waist, scooping low at her breasts, the straps crisscrossing across her chest bones to tie at the back of her neck. Highlighting her positives, she smirked at herself, adjusting the waistband of her mint green shorts to not interfere with her belly-ring. She swiped her lips with blood red lipstick. "You also look nice." Cas offered up to the younger sister as a peace offering.

Roxi wasn't sure what to make of the comment, "Thanks Cas." She said anyway, "I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat. I've got these…" she dangled a ring with a silver car key on it.

"You stole Dean's keys?" Stella erupted piercingly, and then was motioned to shush by Roxi, "Oh my god, he is going to kill you."

Roxi ignored her sister's concern, "Aren't you hungry? I'm hungry. Cas, aren't you hungry?" Her tone was suddenly smooth and coy, sweetly addressing the angel. Cas was surprised by Roxi's sudden voice change.

"I do not need …" this sister was a constant challenge for him, he realized. She never listened to him, did not say the things she meant, she was sarcastic and... "You can not drive the Impala." The thought coming to him suddenly. "Dean will not be pleased." And then he was gone.

Roxi stamped her foot impertinently, "The fucker just teleported out of here."

"He does that." Stella sighed.

* * *

After a hardy breakfast of just about a sampling of everything on the menu, two full cups of coffee each, loaded with sugar and cream, and a large glass of tomato juice with a heap of pepper in it ('hangover remedy' winced Stella as she guzzled hers, Roxi declined), the sisters haggled about who was going to pay the bill.

"Oh don't worry, I got this." A voice came from towering above them. They didn't even need to look up to know that Sam Winchester was giving them one of his famous bitch faces.

"I should kick BOTH your asses." Dean scolded loudly, punching his fist on the table.

Roxi offered up her best puppy-dog eyes, feigning sweet and innocent, pooling her big brown eyes into large saucers, "You hungry Dean?"

Of course he was hungry, he was always hungry. But that was not the point; Dean took a deep breath and tried to channel his anger coolly. "You took my car.", he pulled his hand across his eyes in frustration, repeating, "Roxi. You took my car."

She liked the way her name sounded in his voice, and it made her smile, just faintly. Not withdrawing from the direct mutual contact with those beautiful mossy green eyes, she scooted over on the diner seat, making room for the brother. "Damn it, Roxi." He muttered while waving his hand towards the waitress for coffee.

* * *

Castiel stared up at the three story marble building in slight awe. Sam wasn't so sure, "State of the Art, you said, right?"

Stella chuckled as she started up the stairs to the library, "yep." It was the magic words "Free Wi-Fi" that had actually caught Sam's attention.

Cas followed Stella up the stairs, "It is reminiscent of the Athenian Acropolis." Blissful that this intrigued the angel, she took his hand and led him between the marble columns up the stairway to the bronzed 10 foot doors.

"Standard neoclassical revival architecture." She began, pointing upward to the owls carved into the marble at the top of the doors, "Owls represent human wisdom." The doors opened up into a rotunda paved with mosaic marble. Circling around the main room was a spiral staircase the width of the Impala, also marble, with wrought iron curved railings.

Even Dean was impressed. The quintet's eyes were drawn to the series of murals that flanked the ceiling of the rotunda. Scenes from classic literature. Moby Dick. Huck Finn. Shakespeare. Stella had seen it before, but she enjoyed watching Castiel's reaction as he took it all in, and knowing that she had brought them there. "Cool, right?"

"Very cool." Sam nodded, pulling his laptop out of his bag ready to get to work.

* * *

"So get this..." Sam said from his favorite spot in front of his laptop, sponging off the library's free Wi-Fi, "Mackenzie Landon is adopted."

"Yeah, we know that." Stella said, looking up from her book the History of Angels, Castiel sat next to her debunking most of what she was reading out loud to him. She had heard the Michael and Lucifer stories already, and there was something about the angel Anabiel that Dean just didn't want to talk about. Dean had a rather large tome in front of him, but he didn't seem to be paying much attention to it, with Roxi poking him every so often to get him to blacken his eyes, or moving things telekinetically, especially objects in the library that someone happened to be using or looking for.

"That might have been useful information." Dean mocked.

Roxi supplemented, "Her whole family is adopted. She has 5 brothers and sisters. All adopted. Her parents are like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt or something." Dean grinned at her snarkiness. He couldn't help but like this girl.

"But all the kids are, like, our age." Stella joined in, "Well, mostly. Mackenzie is 19. The twins are 17 or something….."

Roxi thought about it, "and wasn't there an 18th birthday party for one of the sisters last winter?" Stella nodded.

Sam read on, "According to this, all 6 kids were legitimate orphans. No parents, no order of temporary custodies, or termination of parental rights – all parents were either dead or simply non-existent."

"Aren't adoption records supposed to be sealed, or something?" Stella inquired, casting a furtive peek over Sam's shoulder.

Sam scrolled down the computer screen, "Yeah, but this is a news article about how wonderful the family is. How they all volunteer together at local homeless shelters, recycling drives, human rights causes. The parents met in college, and decided that they would not have children of their own, but adopt children who really needed loving homes. Each child had their own struggles, and once brought into the Landon family, became pillars of the community."

Castiel was impressed, "How altruistic of them. They saved those children from a very hard life."

"Usually, people just don't adopt the older kids." Roxi added, "They only want the cute sweet little babies. Not the ones that come with the baggage. It's kind of sad."

"Like in Annie." Castiel said sorrowfully, referring to the red headed orphan from the comics/play/movie. Stella looked at the angel almost proudly, "exactly, Cas. Exactly like Annie."

"Mackenzie never hid that she was adopted, and she was very proud of all of her brother and sisters. It was almost a little weird how they all got along. No sibling rivalries, no spats with annoying brothers. It was one big love fest." Roxi crinkled her nose as if this was distasteful, "I mean, I love Stella, but there is a limit."

Dean smirked, raising his eyebrows signaling in Sam's direction, "Tell me about it."

Stella hesitated, and then threw her attention back to her angel book, "so Cas what about… Simiel?"

"Simiel is an angel of death." Castiel said without any emotion or reservations. The angel saw life and death as a necessary pair.

Dean didn't like the way that Stella quickly changed the subject, or maybe is was her hesitation, "Stella….What do you know?"

Stella stared at her book again. Not really seeing the words, and then finally sighed, "Mackenzie talked about running away."

Sam leered at her with one of his best scolding teacher look; Dean shut his book with a huff, "Again, That might have been useful information."

"She wasn't going to actually DO it. She was just tired of the overbearingness of her parents. They're great parents, don't get me wrong, and she loved them, and respected them, and….. BUT … she was 19. And she still wasn't allowed out at night after 10:30. And she couldn't drive to the mall by herself; she always had to have a brother or sister with her. So…" she stopped and took a long breath.

"So she borrowed your car, just to get away for a little bit." Sam concluded.

"Yes! She just needed some space. But when the car returned and she wasn't in it, I got a little freaked." Stella pulled her bangs to the side in a small self-conscious movement, "I went to her house, and her parents hadn't seen her. In fact they hadn't seen her all night, they thought she was with me, having sleepover, I made up some stupid excuse, like I thought she had come home to shower, but she must actually be at MY house in the shower, and I didn't know it. Went home, and she wasn't there."

"That was a week ago." Roxi whispered conspiratorially.

"And she hasn't turned up?" Cas asked skeptically.

"And get this … her emails get returned as no such address, her cell phone number is disconnected. AND her twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Vine and Tumblr accounts are all closed. ALL of them." Stella said this last bit as if it were the most important, her eyes widened dramatically.

"Is she speaking in tongues?" Dean whispered to Cas. Cas shook his head, but looked just as baffled by the words the girl was using.

"That's a very big deal for a 19 year old." Stella scoffed.

Sam offered up a possible explanation, "Maybe she was punished. Grounded, or something."

"She's 19, Sam. She's a college student; she is going to be a nurse. You can't ground a 19 year old nursing student! Were you ever grounded when you were 19?" being 19, Roxi spoke from emphatically from the heart. Of course, Sam was never grounded when he was 19. His mother was long dead, and his dad always on the road. He almost wished he could say he was grounded.

"If her parents were as protective as you claim…" Cas started, Stella politely cut him off, "I checked her house, every day. She was not there."

"When you say 'check her house'…?" Dean asked, knowing there was something else Stella was leaving out.

"I checked it, ok. I checked it. She was not there."

"Ok. Ok." Sam keyed something else in the computer, "There are no missing persons reports from the Landon family. Not within the last month. Or ever." A few minutes later and a few more clicks, "There are no Jane Does listed in any police reports in the last month." And again, "There are no Jane Does that fit her description in the recent hospitalization records."

"Maybe we should pay the Landons a little visit." Dean suggested.

"And say what? We're investigating your missing daughter, who you haven't even noticed is gone?" Sam countered somewhat sarcastically.

Cas leaned over Sam's shoulder, looking at the family portrait that was with the newspaper article about the Landon family, "Dean." The tone of Cas's voice was heavy with his usual nonplus, but Dean heard a hint of surplus gravity in it. And then again, "Dean, do you notice something in this picture?" Dean took his place next to the angel, peering over his brother's shoulder, the angel and his shoulders brushing against each others, they exchanged annoyed expressions as if the each received a static electrical shock from the movement.

"Brady Bunch Domesticity?" He taunted the angel good-naturedly. Cas eyed him with submissive restraint, knowing his charge well enough in that Dean needed to joke first before being taken to task. Dean studied the photo on the screen for a moment. "It's hard to see anything, Cas – it's a photo, its not like seeing people in person." Cas waited patiently.

Dean pointed to one of the twins, the boy in the back row, "Is that a retinal flare, or just bad red eye from the flash?"

"It's a published article and photo. They photoshop red eye out, if they can." Sam mentioned, narrowing his eyes at the photo himself, "Retinal Flare can't be photoshopped out."

"So a shapeshifter?" Dean questioned out loud. Stella and Roxi exchanged a look that was a little excitement and a little bit fear. Cas cocked his head in silent agreement.

Sam wondered what else he was missing; finally he resigned, "Ok. So we visit the Landons."


	5. Chapter 5

"Agents Murdock and Peck. Sir, we want to talk about your missing daughter." The Winchesters were in their FBI dress suits, with their "we mean business" faces. Castiel was there beside them, suited up also, but with his usual tan rain coat. "This is our colleague, James Novak." Dean didn't have the energy to come up with a fake name for Cas just yet.

When Mr. Landon opened the door, eyed the three misfits in suits, he smiled. "All of my children are accounted for, _agents_." He was a studious looking middle aged man, graying at the temples, but a young face. Much too young to have a daughter the same age as Stella or Roxi.

"It was reported that," Sam looked down at his fake notepad, being careful at his wording, "Mackenzie Landon disappeared over 6 days ago."

Mrs. Landon came from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. The smell of freshly baked cookies wafting in after her, to which Dean's stomach grumble was pavlovian. The mom's appearance was just as deceiving as the father's. She looked much younger than she could be. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a neat ponytail, pulled close to her head. She was wearing an outfit similar to something one might wear playing tennis: an athletic skort and matching tank top. Hanging around her neck, just barely peeking out of her shirt, was an antiqued oval medallion hanging on a delicate gold chain, looking slightly out of place. "Oh no. Agents, I'm sorry there is definitely a mistake there, Mackenzie was missing for just a few hours. It was a complete miscommunication."

Sam and Dean exchanged puzzled looks, "So Mackenzie is home. Can we speak to her?"

Cas stood near the edge of the room, examining the family portraits that lined the shelves and fireplace mantle, "Dean." He summoned the brother over.

Sam continued to question the parents, finding out that Mackenzie had been very sick for a few days. A virus of some sort, but was nearly recovered. "Agent, it's true. Kids will be kids. She ran away – but she came back the very next day." Mr. Landon explained.

Sam added, "And she came home with this virus."

The mom smiled with maternal pride, "Probably why she came home. No one wants to be far from home when they don't feel well. Including rebellious teenagers. "

"You have quite the family." Dean mentioned, picking up one of the group shots of the entire family.

"We are all blessed to have each other." Mrs. Landon nodded. She had the look of a woman who was stunning in her younger years, but was aging gracefully. Dean would swear she was just a few years older than himself.

There was a sudden disruption as two spy and giddy teenagers sprinted into the living room, breathless, and excited, "Mom, you should hear this, Christof finally mastered that solo for the …." The girl's voice trailed off as she noticed the strangers in the room.

"Blair, Christof – this is Agent Murdock, and Peck."

The teenagers were well trained, and nodded slightly before saying in unison, "Nice to meet you."

Castiel's eyes narrowed significantly, peering at the youngsters suspiciously. Dean's eyes however, widened in surprise. "Christof." He reached his hand out to the young male. He knew when Christof looked at him; he saw exactly the same thing Dean did, the horrific visage of a demon. It was what Cas saw too. Christof looked at Dean's demonized hand and hesitated. Dean sniffed the air, almost animalistic, "and Blair. Blair … you just fed. Let me guess, bovine, type B."

Sam was lost. His brother's demon senses made him more susceptible to reading something in people. And of course, Cas, being an Angel, could pretty much see through anyone's disguise.

"They're hunters." Blair whispered, looking to her parents as if they betrayed them.

"You must go." Christof motioned towards Sam, never laying a hand on him, sending Sam slamming against the wall by his sheer will.

Dean however stood strong, "But we just got here. I thought maybe we could be friends." He flicked his demon eyes, revealing himself further to the young man and the rest of the room. The young man merely sneered.

Sam groaned from the rumpled folded mass he had fallen into in the corner, "Dean, What …?"

"They're demons, brother." Dean yelled over the buzz of activity.

"No." Castiel corrected, he held the parents at bay, with an upswing of his arm. They were human. Psychically strong, but human. "Witches." He declared suddenly.

Blair leapt to the air, a 7 foot vertical leap, landing on Sam's chest, baring serrated knife like teeth, Sam yelled, slightly stunned, "VAMP!" Blair hissed at him, her breath heavy in the scent of blood and iron.

There was a loud rumble at the stairs, Sam and Dean knew it was more creatures coming to the aid of their kin. The boy they saw in the photo – the shapeshifter, and his twin sister, followed by the one and only Mackenzie Landon.

Trying to remain calm and unthreatening, Dean started to say, "We are not here to …."

"To what, Hunter? Kill us all in our nest?" the demon Christof accused grabbing him by the neck.

Dean grimaced, but did not falter, "Look. We know friends of Mackenzie's. They were worried about her. They said she disappeared."

"Friends? Mackenzie has no friends." Christof derided, tightening his grip on Dean's throat. "If she had friends, she wouldn't have tried to run away. All she has is us. Her family."

Dean spat at the demon at his throat, "Family? This is your family. This is one messed up, dysfunctional family. What is this a Foster home for Wayward Demonic creatures?"

"We are NOT a foster home." The father spoke up,"These are our children. Foster home implies transience, a temporary port in the storm until something else comes up. It evokes emotions of instability. NO. These are our children, as sure as if we had born them ourselves."

"Although," the mother witch added, joining Mackenzie and her siblings at the stairs, putting her arm around Mackenzie protectively, "many children have benefitted from foster placement _(she cast a sidelong glance at her husband for what she felt was a judgmental comment)_ We have adopted these, creatures, as you so indelicately put it." She fiddled with a talisman around her neck, mentally preparing a spell to shield her children from the hunters. "We are their forever family."

Christof curled his lips at Dean, "You would fit right in Demon. You and your angel boyfriend."

Dean was tired of taming his innate demon temper. With very little effort at all, Dean shoved the teenage demon from him, proving that he was merely playing nice, his voice rose heavy with resentment and exasperation "This is crazy! Don't you see that? He is an Angel of the Lord. He could smite all your asses in one damn flick of his wrist. Or maybe he should sing. Go ahead, Cas sing a song for them, see if they can handle it. No, wait … "Dean chuckled, truly enjoying the taunting moment, "Better yet, show them your true form, so their eyes will be BURNED OUT OF THEIR FRICKIN' SKULLS!"

Mackenzie stepped forward, away from the safety of her mother's embrace, "Stop it. Just Stop it." She addressed her family and the hunters, "I don't want my family to be hurt because of my … stupid mistake." Cas looked to Dean for instruction. Dean held tough, not confident in the girl's ability to control her kin. Blair hesitated, hovering over Sam ominously. With her hesitation, Sam tossed her somewhat passively from his chest, defensively brandishing a silver dagger. Blair hissed. "Blair, NO." Mackenzie ordered, "Don't." Blair rolled her neck from side to side, and held her hands up in a sign of resignation. "Christof…" Christof winced at the sound of her sister's voice, but stepped back from the demonic hunter. "I know you are protecting me." Mackenzie continued, "But this goes against everything that you have taught me. Taught us as a family." The last statement was pointed to her parents, "And harm none, do what you will, you said."

"But sister, these are Hunters." Christof said defiantly, "They kill our kind. It's in the title. They HUNT us, and kill us."

"They were just looking for information." Mackenzie excused looking pleadingly to Sam and Dean for some sign that they were as well meaning as she was.

Castiel released his hold on the father, and spoke, his tone low, but his words clear, "If it is true that you do no harm, there is no reason to exterminate the family." Dean leered at the angel slightly, his eyes questioning him, not completely comfortable with Cas making a Hunter's decision for them.

Sam dropped his stance to a less offense, "You just fed … bovine blood?" He questioned Blair.

She nodded, with a shy admission, "Top shelf cow's blood."

Mr. Landon explained, "We teach the children how to live with their abilities and still coexist with the human society. We feel it will give them a better chance of surviving, and also living fuller, happier lives. There is no reason that supernatural beings cannot exist along side …."

Dean interrupted him insolently, a bit sarcastic "regular humans." The father nodded. Dean sighed, finally letting his guard down, and relaxing his fighting stance. He tugged the sleeves of his suit jacket, cracked his neck right to left. "Ok." and then more decidedly, "ok." Then he quipped, not being able to help himself, "Witches! I hate Witches! No offense." "And a shapeshifter? (_groan_) shapeshifters give me the heebie jeebies. _(he faced the teen by the stairs)_ You shape-shift into me, I will gank you so fast it will make your head spin faster than Linda Blair." "No offense." He said to Blair, correcting himself, and then with another sigh, "I swear to God this place is one pun away from a Tumblr joke."

* * *

"So which one of you hex bagged the car?" Sam asked.

Mackenzie squawked, "Moooom, you hex bagged Stella's car?"

"It was just a protection bag. I swear." Mrs. Landon defended, "Maybe with a little extra persuasion?"

"Persuasion? – Persuasion to make the car go all Christine and do things on its own?" Dean asked for clarification.

"If the girls were making bad decisions, the car would react. If they were making good choices, they would never know the difference." It sounded more logical in Mrs. Landon's mind than when she said it out loud.

Mackenzie sat on the stairs in a huff, "But, we were making good choices, just not the exact decisions you would make. But I'm 19, I'm allowed to think differently, and make some mistakes."

"What about Earle?" the demon hunter asked. The family looked from one to the other. The father wondered out loud who Earle was, "The dead guy we found at the auto palace, hexed bagged"

Sam filled in some blanks, a tad more amicable than his brother's approach, "He was the previous owner of the car. We found his body at the same place Stella stores her car during the school year"

The shapeshifter, Dante, looked to the floor, and mumbled something about a creepy dude. Mrs. Landon swiped at the teen's shoulder and demanded that he repeat himself, "What did you do young man?!"

Dante cleared his throat, changing his weight from one foot to the other. He wanted to shape-shift into anything but himself at that very moment, but he knew he would have hell to pay if he even flickered. He struggled against his chameleon-like instinctive ability, his voice cracked under the effort, "One time I gave Stella and Mackenzie a ride to her car at the lot, there was a creepy dude just hanging around. I saw him stumbling out of from behind Stella's car, looked like he just woke up. I thought maybe he was sleeping in her car."

"Earle had hit some hard times, maybe he was homeless." Sam suggested, and Dean finished, "And still had a key to the Caprice."

"You killed a homeless man?" Mr. Landon bellowed at the shifter, his rage and disappointment flavoring every syllable.

"I didn't mean it to kill him ….. I … I …."

Mrs. Landon interrupted, somewhat critical, "You haven't even finished your hex bag studies!"

"Studies?" Dean did not like the sound of that, "You are training them in how to curse things?"

The mother curled her face towards the brothers, "There is more than one kind of magic, boys. You know well enough. I am trying to help these children acquire skills to protect themselves in this world. You've been out there; you know how it is more than most. Beings that are more powerful than they are, and then there are the humans – who can be their worst threat at times. So, yes. We teach them things. Always with the rule that they hurt no one." She said the last words towards her son, who cowered.

Castiel was looking at Mackenzie with a puzzled inquiring stare. She felt his blue eyes burrowing into her. She knew the questions that sat in his mind. And in the hunters as they followed his gaze. He spoke, "You are not human, Mackenzie."

Mackenzie stammered a response. Although it may have been meant as a question, he merely stated it, as if declaring something about her. Sam and Dean looked from the Angel to Mackenzie waiting for a response.

"Well…that virus that my mom said I had. It wasn't exactly not true. The moon phase was powerful the night I borrowed Stella's car." She knew she wouldn't have to say much after that.

"Lycanthrope?" Sam questioned the teen gently, as if speaking to the sick or maimed. She nodded.

Dean shook his head, "Well, Michael J. Fox would be proud." When Sam gave Dean the 'what's wrong with you?' brotherly look, Dean retorted with an attitude as if it was simply obvious, "What?! Teen-Wolf? Come on!"

* * *

"Soooo …." Dean sighed, laying back onto one of the girls' hotel beds, remote in one hand, a beer in the other, recanting the adventure to Stella and Roxi who listened with bated breath, "Like I said, It was one wacked out dysfunctional home for wayward creatures."

"It does not seem to be dysfunctional. It seems quite 'functional', Dean." Cas corrected. Dean cracked a smile at Cas's teasing, however unintended it was.

"It's like the Cullen family." Stella announced. Roxi agreed wholeheartedly.

Dean contorted his face to get the image of the Cullens from his brain, "The douchebag family of vamps from Twilight?"

Cas's face brightened with a full mouthed smile. He understood that reference, "Yes. Like the Cullens. They assembled the young vampires, and taught them the way to live peacefully, to be constructive members of their society, instead of killing innocents. It was quite a beautiful concept really. Until the clash with the werewolves, and the Volturi, then it turns quite violent."

"You've seen the movies?" Dean accused. Stella tried to give the angel the benefit of the doubt, "maybe read the books?"

"I acquired knowledge of pop culture from Metatron." Cas explained indifferently, not understanding Dean's teasing.

"Like uploaded it?" Roxi queried.

Cas looked at the raven haired sister, briefly pondering her words, and confirmed, "Yes. Just like uploading it."

Stella frowned, "that's missing the whole fun of it all, isn't it?"

Cas considered Stella. "Is it?" He became silent, and sullen for a moment, "Perhaps it is."

"Oh Cas." Stella whispered, feeling sad for the Angel for the first time, caressing his arm affectionately. Cas found himself enjoying the girl's attempt of comforting him. It was sweet.

"I still can't believe you wouldn't let us come along!" Roxi blazed. "A real Hunt! Vampires. Demons. Shapeshifters. Witches." She got more ecstatic with each term she threw out.

"All our friends. All people we have hung out with. We've been to their parties, broke bread with all of them." Castiel and Sam smirked at the fact that Stella was the kind of girl that used the term "Break bread".

"Come to think of it, I always thought Christof was kinda cute." Roxi admitted, plopping down on the bed next to Dean. He only smiled.

Stella laughed literally out loud, and made an obvious sarcastic eye motion from Dean to Roxi, "Apparently, he's your type."


	6. Chapter 6 - post script

Munching on the cucumbers Aunt Jayna had already peeled and sliced, by the handful, Roxi managed between bites, "Aunt Jayna, it was wild, and Dean… Dean is a…." she lowered her voice to a whisper.

Jayna raised her finger to her mouth, "And still your fingers on your lips, I pray." She quoted with a slight mischievous smile.

"Shakespeare. That's a Shakespeare quote." The angel said from the doorway, with a suspicious grovel. He was used to Dean's pop culture references, so that one caught him by surprise.

"Yes, my dear Cas. But of course."

The Winchester brothers entered the kitchen single file, reminiscent of boy scouts. "Jayna." Dean greeted the aunt seriously. Sam's smile stretched across his face, bringing out his dimples, "Hey Jayna." The younger brother was always friendly to her, the older one slightly more deferential. She smiled at the two. They hadn't changed much since she had last seen them. Sam's hair was a little longer; Dean's face was a little harder. Still two lovely boys. She still thought of them as boys, even though they were closer to her age than her nieces. And they still looked damn good. The green eyes were unmistakable. Dean's wide and deceptively expressive, brilliantly shaded emerald; Sam's more amber and hazel, but mutable with every mood. When visions came to her of the Brothers, it was their eyes she saw first. Jayna took two beers from the refrigerator, handed one to each of them. "Still not cutting your hair, I see, Sam." (he blushed), "I like it, it suits you." Dean huffed indignantly.

Jayna continued to chop the zucchini and peppers for her famous calabacitas, the salad was done, the potatoes were baking in the oven "Dean, the chicken is on the grill. It should almost be done; can you check it for me?"

Dean swallowed a swig of the beer, and straightened up as if given a new mission, "I'm on it." He declared and head out the sliding glass doors to the deck and smoking grill.

Sam drank from his bottle, smiling his crooked smile, Jayna sighed, "Oh – Sam! I almost forgot! Those bags you boys came in with – they reeked, so I kind of … well, washed your clothes." Sam looked embarrassed, shocked, and stammered a response, Jayna held up her hand, "I know , I know … But listen, the dryer is acting funny, I think the belt came loose or something. Can you look at it?" Sam dutifully put his beer down, rubbing his hands together, Jayna grinned, "there's tools downstairs, you can't miss them." No missing a beat, Sam galloped down the basement stairs. Stella thought she actually heard him humming.

"I forgot what a refreshing tall glass of water he is." Aunt Jayna said mostly to herself.

Stella followed her aunt's line of sight, "Sam?"

"What does that even mean? "tall glass of water"?" Roxi asked with her usual spunk.

Jayna just tried to shrug it off, "Its just an old saying."

Stella laughed a bit at her aunt's expense. Roxi wondered suspiciously, "Did you ever date one of the Winchesters? Because you seem …."

"ME?" Jayna motioned to her self, with a bit of self-deprecating humor, "Those boys are way out of my league." Roxi shook her head. It was hard for them to see Jayna as anything but Auntie. They saw how some of the local older guys glanced at her, when she walked by in her colorful sundresses that showed off her chest a little too much, ineffectually wrapped in a floral shawl as if a ploy to be modest had gone awry. She had an eclectic exotic aura that caught people's attention without them realizing why. The girls always thought it was her psychic vibes, but as they tried to look at her objectively, She could be considered pretty. Not Sam or Dean's type. But pretty.

"How long have you known them?" Stella asked. The Winchester Brothers that she had experienced took orders from no body, ate take out food, lived in hotels, gawked at scantily clad women, and drank too much. But with Aunt Jayna they were the stereotypical, cliché boys-next-door.

Jayna rubbed her hands on the towel that she kept next to the sink, "I met Sam awhile back when he was hanging out with this girl Ruby. He has a little bit of psychic ability, himself – although he thinks its gone now. Anyway, he was trying to hone his ability into a way to fight demons, and in essence save people. But he was so conflicted. He struggled with the choices and sacrifices he had to make. It was an interesting time for him. I was younger then, so was he. Because I can read people so well, it sometimes makes it really easy for people to talk to me, Its like they think I already know the things they are telling me. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. (_she smiled giving away a little trick of her trade_) But he was very enmeshed with that Ruby." She shrugged, "and my path crossed with both the brothers together only one other time. Just a case they were working. Bunch of mystics dying suspiciously. I happen to be in town for a conference."

She smiled to herself as she piled the zucchini, peppers and corn in the skillet "They are good boys." She got very clear reading from the Winchesters, although she tried not to show it. It was like their life ran in her head like she was watching a movie. It happened like that sometimes.

She paused, the girls' confused expressions urged her forward, "The Winchester boys never had much of a home life. So much has happened to them in their lives. So much pain." She shook her head as she felt the pain herself as she said the words. Being psychic had its repercussions. "Every time one of them gets close to some sort of Home (_when she said the word, it had more power than just the word home_), something botched it up. Demons, Angels, vampires, leviathans, Lucifer, ghosts – always something in their way. But … They crave it innately. At times, they don't even realize it themselves. They have an inherent need for some kind of Home. So, when they are given even the smallest of chances, they just fall right into it." Stella and Roxi exchanged knowing smiles. And that's what their Aunt had just done, threw out a sense of domesticity and Home to the brothers, and they latched onto it contentedly without question.

Jayna's black cat, Zeke, rubbed up against Castiel's leg. Cas bent down and rubbed the back of its head. "I had a brother named Ezekiel." He seemed to be saying it to the cat, not to anyone else. "The cat is hungry."

"Food and bowl is in the back hall." Jayna instructed. Cas nodded, and proceeded to the hallway with the black cat following close behind.

"And that one …" Jayna exhaled noisily.

"Isn't he dreamy?" Stella murmured, realizing she was being dramatic and silly, but she couldn't help herself.

Jayna chuckled, "He is that." Jayna thought about the big blue eyes, with the tiny crinkles in the corners, the small tease of a smile that he doled out sparingly, and she knew exactly where her niece was coming from. But then, "He loves those boys. He truly loves them. But he isn't exactly sure what to do with those feelings."

Roxi rolled her eyes, "He and Dean have a profound bound." It was like a mantra, and she was a tad bit tired of hearing it.

"Yes. Yes they sure do. It is beautiful. It comes from deep within them both, and it emanates from every ounce of their souls." Jayna sighed. "But he's an Angel. Human emotions are so different for him. All he knows is sacrifice, loyalty, and protection. That's how he shows his love. And sometimes, it's hard for Dean to recognize it."

Roxi swallowed hard and let her Aunt's words sink in. It was a lot to process.

Stella poked at the crystal salad bowl, nodding to the thoughts that were swimming in her head. Sam. Dean. Castiel. "They're family. They are each other's family." Stella concluded.

"That's right." Jayna smirked proudly at her kin, "because, dear nieces, always remember, There's more to family than blood."

* * *

The chicken done, Dean opened the oven door, complaining, "Salad, grilled chicken, some sort of veggie mush… This is all too healthy for me."

Sam climbed the stairs from the basement, arms weighed down with a laundry basket full of folded towels. After he fixed the malfunctioning dryer, he folded the clean towels as he waited to see if it was working, testing it on his own laundry, now clean, but wet. He laughed at his brother, "It won't kill you to eat healthy once in awhile." Jayna glanced from the basket, and back to Sam's smiling face, offering a wordless smile of approval and gratitude. He may have blushed slightly when she squeezed his forearm soothingly.

"Dean is a warrior." Cas chimed in from the hallway. Dean tried to hide his pride at the rare sarcastic joke from the Angel.

Jayna crossed the kitchen, to stir 'mush', "This is calabacitas – zucchini and corn, with a little bit of a kick. You'll like it. Baked potatoes are in the oven, yes we have sour cream, and bacon bits." She answered before he asked. She had to lean past Dean to stir the skillet on the stove, her voice dropped to a sultry whisper, "And there's pie."

Dean raised his eyebrows, rolling a bit onto his tiptoes, maybe being a little psychic wasn't such a bad thing. "I think I might like it here."


End file.
